History
Our Building
In the 1960s, Liggett and Myers constructed a large Jeffersonian-style building on North Roxboro Street to serve as its Operations Center, which opened in 1967. In 1979, the Liggett Group relocated its National Headquarters to Montvale, New Jersey. The building was subsequently acquired by GTE, which doubled its size to 159,570 square feet by seamlessly adding a four-story addition at the back. They may have also added the columned portico to the front of the building.
The building changed hands again and underwent renovations, including asbestos abatement, by its new owner, Beaches West Development Ltd., which renamed it Signature Commons. In 2008, part of the first floor was leased as temporary quarters for the DPS magnet school, City of Medicine Academy. Within three years, their permanent facility was completed on the grounds of Durham Regional Hospital, and they vacated Signature Commons. The space was then leased to Carter Community School, which later built its own facility off West Cornwallis Road and moved also.
Excelsior Classical Academy received approval from the Charter School Advisory Board and the State Board of Education in 2014 to open in August 2015. In our first year, we leased the original classroom space in Signature Commons for 252 students in grades K-4. That year, we began renovating additional first-floor space to accommodate our expansion for the following year. Each year, we needed to add more space, and in June 2018, we purchased the building for $7.47 million—a much lower cost than buying land and constructing a new facility. We added a playground and continued to enhance the building to support our growth into a K-12 school. In the summer of 2023, we completed our final addition: a gym.
Our Beginnings
Cynthia Gadol, a teacher of math, statistics, logic, and art at TJCA, was invited to become a TEAMCFA Fellow while serving as a Teacher Representative on TJCA’s Board. This opportunity allowed her to train as a charter school leader and prepare to open a school. While continuing her work at TJCA, she earned a master’s degree in School Administration, wrote the charter for Excelsior Classical Academy, and made frequent trips from Rutherford County in western North Carolina to Durham to recruit board members and secure a building. She and the founding board submitted the charter application on December 6, 2013.
In May 2014, the founding board of Excelsior—composed of Dr. Tammy White Rodman, Dr. Tom Nechyba, Kathy Rennie, Mark Anthony Middleton, Natalie Dekle, Blaire Benson, and Joan Lange—was interviewed by the Charter School Advisory Board about the application. Since only board members could participate, Ms. Gadol proudly watched as they answered questions about the charter. The application was approved, paving the way for Excelsior to open in August 2015, following the required training year for the founding director and board.
Excelsior opened its doors on August 5, 2015, with 252 students in grades K-4, with plans to add one grade level each year. The first group of students entered middle school in the 2017-2018 school year. In 2020, the North Carolina State Board of Education granted Excelsior a 10-year charter renewal—the longest term possible for NC charter schools. During the pandemic’s remote learning period, Excelsior introduced ninth grade and officially became a K-12 school in the 2023-2024 academic year. The school celebrated its first graduating class, comprising 37 students, on June 1, 2024. On July 1, 2024, Cognia notified the school that its accreditation application had been approved. As the school entered its tenth year in the 2024-2025 academic year, it serves over 1,000 students in grades K-12. June 3, 2025, will mark the tenth anniversary of the charter agreement’s signing and Ms. Gadol’s retirement will occur on June 18. We eagerly anticipate the next decade and beyond, led by Executive Director Dr. Dana Coyle.
Our Founding Director
Cynthia Gadol, Director Emerita
Cynthia Gadol earned a BA in Statistics from the University of Georgia, after majoring in Art the first two years. She worked as a Programmer/Analyst and Technical Writer for a number of years. Ms. Gadol earned a Master of School Administration from Appalachian State University. She holds a North Carolina K-12 Principal’s license and is also licensed to teach High School Mathematics.
As one of the founding teachers at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, which opened in rural, western North Carolina in 1999, Ms. Gadol helped develop the high school curriculum. Over a period of twelve years she taught various courses: Art and Art History, Logic I and II, Rhetoric, Algebra I and II, Geometry, and AP Statistics. She served as Chair first for the Mathematics Department and then for the Trivium Department. She was a member of the Curriculum Committee, the Scheduling Committee, the Scholarship Committee, the School Improvement Team, and the AdvancEd Accreditation Team.
Ms. Gadol led professional development courses at TJCA on teaching critical thinking and logic throughout the curriculum, Socratic questioning, and Paideia seminars. She worked with the Drama Club, helping with sets, designing and sewing costumes, and occasionally directing and coaching. While at TJCA, she was the National Honor Society adviser and oversaw Prom and Graduation activities. The National Society of High School Scholars recognized Ms. Gadol as an Educator of Distinction after one of her students who was a member nominated her. She was selected for Who’s Who among American Teachers for three years, nominated by four different students. Her school nominated Ms. Gadol for Disney’s American Teacher Award for creativity in teaching and for NC Charter School Teacher of the Year. The recognition of which Ms. Gadol is most proud is the TJCA’s Punniest Teacher Award, presented in 2006 by the senior class. To date, she is the only recipient of this award.
Ms. Gadol’s peer teachers elected her as the upper school teacher representative to TJCA’s Board of Directors. Ms. Gadol was invited by the TEAMCFA Representative to became a TeamCFA Fellow in 2012. She worked in administration at two TEAMCFA schools, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and Lake Lure Classical Academy, before opening Excelsior Classical Academy.
Ms. Gadol’s retires in June, 2025, at the end of Excelsior’s tenth year.
Our Founding Board
Tammy White Rodman, Founding Board President
Tammy White Rodman received her ordination Dec 2009 through the Yates Baptist Association. She launched The Sanctuary Outreach Ministries, a ministry of healing and wholeness for women who have suffered abuse.
Dr. Rodman earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from North Carolina Central University. She did Masters level course work at Pfeiffer University in Business Administration and Health Administration. When Dr. Rodman decided to go into the Ministry, she pursued Theological training, earning a Master of Divinity degree May 2008 from Shaw University Divinity School and a Doctorate in Ministry December 2012 from United Theological Seminary with a focus in Christian Education and Urban Ministries.
She has served on the Board of Directors for Urban Ministries Homeless Shelter and for Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network (an organization which houses homeless families and their children). She also served as Board President for Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network. She has been an intern with Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (Durham CAN), and has worked at Reality Ministries and other faith-based ministries.
Prior to going into ministry, Dr. Rodman worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina for 14 years, holding various positions. Her last position there was Business Analyst.
Natalie Dekle, Founding Board Vice President
Natalie Dekle earned a Bachelor of Humanities with High Distinction in Secondary Education/English from Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. She also received the Humanities Academic Achievement Award. Natalie is licensed to teach high school English, middle school language arts, and middle school science, with additional certification in Teaching Diverse Learners. She has taught at public and private schools in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and at a community college in Pennsylvania. During her teaching career, Ms. Dekle was twice selected for inclusion in Who’s Who among American Teachers. At her last school, in addition to serving on the School Improvement Plan Committee and co-chairing the school’s re-accreditation committee for two re-accreditation cycles, Natalie served as a faculty representative on the School Advisory Board and advisor to the yearbook staff.
Outside of her work in education, Ms. Dekle has worked as a guest curator at the Hershey Museum and a project director at the Hershey Community Archives, researching and compiling a museum exhibit and an oral history project on the Italian Community in Hershey. She also has experience in arts administration, through her employment as Program Director at the Hershey Educational and Cultural Center and at Pinecone: Piedmont Council of Traditional Music in Raleigh. Her responsibilities at these organizations included maintaining membership records, as well as budgeting, staffing, and publicity.
Kathy Rennie, Founding Board Secretary/Treasurer
Kathy Rennie earned a Bachelor’s degree in French from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and a Master’s degree in Special Education from Columbia College in New York. She worked with learning disabled and emotionally disabled students at a private school in New York, a public school in New Jersey, and Durham Public Schools.
Ms. Rennie worked from 2003 to 2013 as the Finance Manager of Triangle Futbol Club, a non-profit youth soccer club of over 900 members which serves the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill area. In 1980, she and her husband, a former Duke soccer coach, founded the Duke University Soccer Camp, a summer youth soccer camp attended by as many as 2000 players annually, and ran it until her husband left Duke to pursue other opportunities. The Rennies designed and implemented the marketing tools needed to recruit campers ages 6-18, making it one of the largest and most respected soccer camps in the country. Her duties at the Triangle Futbol Club and Duke University Soccer Camp included advertising, publicity, marketing, fundraising, budgeting, account reconciliation, hiring, office management, and payroll.
Dr. Tom J. Nechyba
Thomas J. Nechyba is a professor of Economics and Public Policy and is the Director of the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University. His major areas of expertise are Education, Public Finance, and Education Finance.
Professor Nechyba, who received his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1994, joined the Duke faculty in 1999 after spending five years on the faculty at Stanford University. He has lectured as a Visiting Professor at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro and the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich, and he held the year-long National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford in 1998/99.
Professor Nechyba is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves as Associate Editor for the American Economic Review, International Tax and Public Finance, and The BE Journals of Economic Analysis and Policy. He has previously served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Duke and is currently Department Chair.
His research, which has been funded by agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, lies in the field of public economics, with particular focus on primary and secondary education, federalism and the functioning of local governments, as well as public policy issues relating to disadvantaged families.
Mark Anthony Middleton
Mark Anthony Middleton is the founder and pastor of the Abundant Hope Christian Church and the founder and CEO of Abundant Hope Incorporated. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mark was educated in the New York City Public Schools System. He is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He received his theological training at the Duke University School of Divinity and also did course work at New York Theological Seminary. Mark was licensed and ordained to Christian Ministry at the renowned Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York where the Rev. Dr. Gary V. Simpson is the Senior Pastor.
Pastor Middleton is an award-winning essayist and a published author. His work appears in the popular African-American Devotional Bible published by the Zondervan Publishing Company. He has appeared on national television (BET) to discuss leadership in the African-American community. Pastor Middleton is a life member of the NAACP and a past Assistant State Director of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. After serving on Excelsior’s Board, Pastor Middleton was elected to Durham’s City Council and then became Mayor Pro-Tempore.
Blaire Benson
Blaire Benson Washington worked in marketing and public relations and was the founder and CEO of b consulting, LLC. A Durham native, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a focus in Public Relations from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2011. She spent much of her time after graduating working with non-profit organizations, both as a PR/marketing consultant and as a volunteer. Some of Blaire’s favorite clients and partners included Cherokee Gives Back, an organization that has a wonderful volunteer program based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Raise the Children, an organization that provides private education and mentorship to orphans in South Africa; and the Granville Vance Faith Initiative for Community Action, an organization that tackles significant community issues by mobilizing and motivating faith organizations in Granville and Vance counties.
After serving on Excelsior’s Founding Board, Ms. Benson moved to Seattle, Washington and earned a Master’s in Social Work and is now a Mitigation Expert for Criminal Defense.
Joan Lange, TEAMCFA Representative
Joan Lange was a leader in educational reform her entire career. Serving as team leader, department head, and curriculum committee chair several times, she was recognized by her peers as a Lindbergh Leader and Teacher of the Year at Ocoee Elementary. Ms. Lange actively participated in the piloting of the Core Knowledge Sequence at Three Oaks Elementary School in Fort Myers, FL. Later she was recruited to bring the curriculum to the middle school. She became a Core Knowledge National Consultant, training hundreds of teachers in schools across the country, and served as a presenter at the Core Knowledge National Conferences 1991-1996.
Ms. Lange joined the Challenge Foundation in 1997 after more than 20 years as a dedicated educator, quickly becoming an advocate for school choice. She served as the Challenge Foundation National Schools Director and Director of School Leadership. After several years of seeking out successful charter school models to offer Challenge Foundation grant support, she became intimately involved in the development of the TEAMCFA network of charter schools. Her work included seeking out communities in need of high quality charter schools that offer rigorous K-12 curriculum, including the Core Knowledge curriculum in grades K-8, and a college preparatory high school model. She had extensive experience serving on TEAMCFA charter school boards. Ms. Lange assisted in forming local school boards and engaging them in training that includes long range planning, fiscal responsibility, and academic best practices, including school policy, procedures and assessment. Ms. Lange holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts from Southeast Missouri University.
